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Page 43The ramblings of an old gitbloggoth Mission Statement: |
Health advice
We at bloggoth believe everything The Daily Express tells us, so naturally we have been drinking black tea without sugar as it reduces blood pressure. It also tastes disgusting, just like everything else that is supposed to be good for you. Following this infallible logic we have decided that toilet cleaner must cure every malady known to man. We heartily recommend three tablets a day before meals to all the non existent readers. In a few weeks you will feel the difference.
War poets and serial killers
Or maybe it is the imbalance in the bloggoth 3 Rs. Way back at the start of bloggoth we vowed never to post anything serious but the way this country is going backwards and the lack of say in that direction gets one furious. Maybe the Rant is driving out the Rude and Rubbish.
Still, war poets managed to put out their stuff in pretty awful times and they weren't all limp-wristed consciencious objectors as you might imagine. Some were enthusiastic about the war, to start with anyway, and some of the most famous, like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, were decorated war heros who killed a number of Krauty bastards.*Note .
One poet illustrates how it is possible to be both creative and RANTY. Julian Grenfell, whose poem Into Battle is said to be the most anthologised, was said to take a psychopathic joy in killing people. Hmmmm. If we believe that some of the art today, unmade beds, bits of shark in tanks etc, really is art then maybe we have been overlooking some great art works of the past. Why did Jack the Ripper mutilate some of his victims in such an elaborate manner? Quite clearly this was a work of art! Maybe this is true of many murders where there appears to be a ritualistic element, the killers are exploring their inner selves and creating art that is an expression of the innate contradictions between the ordered society and our animal natures.
Actually, whether a murder shows artistic flair or not, there would probably be a huge interest if all murder scenes were open to the public. Given all the cuts, there's a great idea there for the police to make a bit of money!
Note: It is officially non racist to call our wonderful EU partners Krauty bastards in the limited context of first world war history.
Desert 2
Actually, the desert on bloggoth is not all due to Google as we said a couple of items back although, as they are big enough to take it, we think it is reasonable to blame them anyway.
We seem to be consumed by a lack of enthusiasm again; we have numerous ideas but none seem worth bothering with and this critical attitude extends to everything else, like the books we have been reading on our new Kindle, sometimes stuff from acclaimed authors. Last night we were reading revenge of the lawn by Richard Brautigan and wondering, as we have with the last few books by others that we have downloaded, why we bothered. Clearly, we at bloggoth will once again have to lower our expectations to match what the world can offer.
Topic: War poets and serial killers Comment here. Comments so far: 0
Don't stop believing
With bloggoth lyricy thing.
???
???
PS Yes, that comma does look a bit funny, it's a Cedilla but the bloggoth lyricy thing uses commas to end lines and we didn't think we might get commas within lines. Doh!
PPS Anyway, all the millions of readers from Albania and Azerbaijan will like it. We like to be inclusive here on bloggoth.
Quite
This week's article that we at bloggoth would have written if we could be arsed is from The DT regarding that piece of shit Qatada.
Any government serious about our security would put Qatada on a one-way flight to Jordan, disdaining the opinion of judges in Strasbourg. That is what our no less civilised, but undoubtedly less decadent, allies in France and Italy would do. Indeed, the tougher-minded Italians have simply deported several jihadists to Tunisia, blithely discounting trivial fines and the disapprobation of Strasbourg. But then these countries are part of cultures that are not so piously craven in the face of the overpaid zealots of the human rights racket.
But the problem goes far wider than a few well known extremists like that. Due to our PC laxity in tackling Islamic extremism and our failure to control Muslim immigration from Pakistan, Somalia, Nigeria and other hotbeds of extremism, we have put ourselves at risk from more numerous unknown individuals:
The growing number of lone wolves who are radicalised
and then indulge in some 'terrorist tourism' are not normally part of a well-organised pipeline
of guerrilla fighters going to the jihad.
More usually, they are personally connected to family or friends who have already gone to a
conflict zone.
Britons are thought to make up about 25% of the 200 or so foreign fighters that the al
Shabaab group in Somalia currently fields, and who are engaging in a deepening war on
neighbouring Kenya and its tourist trade.
Nigeria is a newly identified potential breeding ground for radicalised Islamists with strong
connections to immigrants in the United Kingdom, Rusi added, following a year of violence in
Nigeria blamed on Boko Haram.
Resentment at what has been done to our country has spawned extremism on the far right as well. Unfortunately, experience has shown that such people are no better than the Jihadists and are likely to engage in random acts of violence against anyone of minority ethnic origin or youths at political party camps. But... wouldn't it be nice if there were one or two with intelligence and discrimination in the proper sense of the word? Someone who, instead of attacking some innocent Asian shopkeeper, would do the job that our government should be doing, eradicating the real threats to British citizens.
Desert
If not much bloggothing recently blame Google for their crappy Android stuff. Spent last few weeks making what should be a "simple" update to our apps and, as usual, spent much of the time searching the internet trying to find solutions to all the continual problems that came up. You find page after page of people with the same problems but workable solutions are hard to find. Maybe The Samaritans should open a line solely for Android developers.
I don't ever recall opening a project in Microsoft Visual Studio and finding errors in it although it was all fine when you closed it the previous day or having to do a complete re-installation twice in three months because I could not find any other solutions. You get meaningless messages saying some service has failed to connect or telling you you need a later version although the update box says everything is already up to date, errors because you need to change the target but you cannot change the target because you have errors (I kid you not!), emulators that were fine 5 minutes ago failing to start, upload to Android market that doesn't work with Internet Explorer - how can you have a basic file upload that does not work with IE FFS? - that is kindergarden stuff! Worst of all, we could not update one app again but had to replace it with one of the same name and email previous purchasers. Google will tell you this can only be caused by using a different licensing file but we didn't. We only have the one licensing file and are not yet senile enough to create a new one for no reason then delete it afterwards without remembering doing so. Nor, one would assume, are most of the umpteen other Android developers who fill many pages of a Google search with the same complaint.
One can see how Microsoft grew, despite all the moaning by lefty, geeky, UNIXY sorts about not adhering to standards (and providing helpful, workable methods instead, shame on them!), it's a very slick, professional company and developing for MS is, by comparison, a joy. We hope the Windows 7 smartphone does well, we can get back to developing instead of fire fighting.
PS If any Android developer wants to know how to implement the Market Licensing System using Google's crappy licensing sample as a basis in easy steps, without wasting time attempting to understand Java, a programming language that was clearly invented by Fidel Castro, the answer is at the end of this. It's the only one you will find on the net.
Excellent!
News of an "Atheist victory" on council prayers. The reality of the situation is revealed by the judge's ruling:
A local authority has no power under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972, or
otherwise, to hold prayers as part of a formal local authority meeting, or to summon
councillors to such a meeting at which prayers are on the agenda.
...
The saying of prayers in a local authority chamber before a formal meeting of such a body
is lawful provided councillors are not formally summoned to attend.
That could not be clearer but doubtless we will get the usual guff about "assaults on Christianity". For some reason the religious, like the Bishop of Exeter in that link, appear to be incapable of grasping the distinction between having the freedom to practice their faith and forcing it upon others. These are confused people, they cry discrimination when they are not permitted to discriminate against others, like gays or women, or are not accorded exemptions or special treatments under the law or in the workplace at other peoples' expense.
Most of us non believers are perfectly happy for others to practice their religion provided it does not impact us any more than we all impact each other in an overcrowded country. However, given the reality of continual imposition on the rest of us, it is hardly surprising that many of us are becoming increasingly hostile to all religion.
Update: Right, here we go.
Demoted
We have said before that Sentamu is fairly sensible (for a bishop) (which isn't saying much) and do not approve of racist comments against the chap. Nevetheless, isn't all the furore over all these racist comment news items we get so many of recently, by footballers, people on trains, tubes etc, somewhat overblown?
So what was said to Sentamu? We can probably geuss but they are still just words after all. On the other hand, because he is a public figure with significant influence, the comments he made on gay marriage could have a profound impact on any gays who were hoping to make a real committment to each other. He makes public statements, out of a predudice based on totally irrational reasons, on an issue that is none of his business since the proposals cover only civil ceremonies and wrecks peoples' lives. A very few of them make some private comments and get prosecuted. Is that proportionality? Not in our view.
First opposing the welfare reforms, now this. This Nutcase is officially ejected from the bloggoth list of moderately sensible (for a bishop) (which never was saying much) persons.
Hooooray!!!
We are delighted that bloggoth hero The Grinch was acquitted of tax evasion, although obviously we would have much preferred a precedent-setting ruling that there is no such thing as tax evasion, that everyone is entitled by law to refuse their money to government to be wasted for any purpose that is not approved by the majority of contributing citizens.
Should he be the next England football manager or coach or whatever it is? F* knows. No point asking we at bloggoth about sport. Might be nice to have one who (sort of) speaks English for a change.
Shifting power back to the bottom - yeh right!
Went to the village meeting re the Neighbourhood Plan this evening. For the totally non-existent British readers, this is about implementing the The Localism Act, a bill to "shift power from central government back into the hands of individuals, communities and councils".
Yeh, right. Unfortunately, the idea of giving people a say over local issues is largely meaningless if they are given no say at all over national issues, because it is the national policies that drive the demands. If our government will not control immigration, from inside and outside the EU, then there will continue to be irresistible pressure on our countryside and communities in the South East due to the ever rising need for more houses, schools, hospitals, transport, roads and other infrastructure, water supplies, energy supplies etc etc to meet the demand. Simply allowing local communities a minor say over the precise positioning and exact nature of the developments is meaningless window dressing. The reality is that NIMBY local parishes will simply try and load as much as possible of what are totally inescapable developments onto neighbouring ones and that will simply lead to eventual imposition by the area authorities, with much the same outcome that there would have been before this act.
The only thing that will be different will be the huge increase in petty bureaucracy. A few months back we made the mistake of supporting an application to divert a local footpath because the new route looked a pleasanter option for jogging and ever since have regularly been receiving enormous A4 envelopes packed full of official documents and plans, expert opinions and other submissions. Today's missive was 42 pages, many of them double sided! Oh well, if we decide to get involved in one of these local committees at least we will never run out of paper to light the fire with!
We think we may. What local government sorely needs is input from a few anarchists!
Priceless patches
After about 25 years and much nagging by missus bloggoth, we at bloggoth have finally got round to decorating the main bedroom. The bed has been smashed up to replenish the firewood store but we will have to take the mattress to the dump and that is embarassing due to the stains. We blame the missus mainly as the really obvious stain, from the colour and position, is clearly a woman's stain my lord. If only we were married to Tracy Emin we could probably flog it for £300k. Or perhaps some perves would bid for it on eBay.
We also stripped out all the old pinewood cupboards and found a big unused dusty spidery place next to the central heating duct just big enough to stand up in. Once it's all plasterboarded in again could this be the new hidden xoggoth safe room? Or perhaps we could wall the missus up in there to stop her forcing us to decorate stuff. Good thing we don't have a cat
The world is copying bloggoth again
People in the UK have lost their houses or found huge loans taken out against them as described in this article due to lax practices by our Land Registry. They have been changing registered address of a property on request and the only check made was to send a letter to the currently registered address; if this was not responded to within a set period the re-registration went ahead. This letter could easily be intercepted if the registered address was empty, rented or squatted. We mentioned this a few days ago in a comment and, lo and behold, the Land Registry made some changes just yesterday!
Just a couple of days ago we got fed up with comment spammers on bloggoth, most of whom seem to be from European countries like Belgum, Germany, Norway etc, and implemented a HIGHLY RACIST (hurrah!) comment check that blocks any non English-speaking and/or backward countries. Sorry, numerous would-be foreign commenters, if you ain't from the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, NZ or Oz the new bloggoth commenty thing ain't listening to you. There are still spammers in those countries but it should cut them down a lot. Naturally enough we have been immediately copied by Google.
Where bloggoth goes the world follows.
New xoggoth Tale
A materialist finds that rearranging the furniture has a positive effect on his life after all.
The usual double standards on religion
The usually fairly sensible (for a bishop) Sentamu has spoken out against gay marriage.
It is unclear what he had in mind. Does he oppose civil marriage ceremonies in registry offices or is he concerned (only the DM mentions the possible legal consequences) that, if the bill is passed, discrimination laws will be used to force churches to carry out such marriages? If the first, I would suggest that he and his church keeps their f* noses out of society's business. If the second, then some might sympathise with his view, arguing that it is not the law's place to impose its laws on religious institutions.
That might be fair enough if such respect for beliefs was a universal thing but it isn't. Religious institutions get exemption from laws that are rigorously applied to the rest of us, they refuse equality to women and discriminate against gays and those of other beliefs with impunity. If an atheist-run business refused to employ some devout Muslim or creationist Christian on the grounds that the owner disliked religious belief he would soon be sued for his views and, in the past, they have been sued even where the religious belief really was an impediment to doing the job. Companies have bent rules to allow Muslim staff to refuse to sell bibles or alcohol and Muslim taxi drivers refusing to carry dogs are rarely prosecuted but if an atheist refused to sell a Bible or a Koran because he saw the sale of such irrational crap as damaging to our society how long would he stay in his job?
It is time we made up our minds what equality means. Either the law should protect all views and lifestyles or it should protect none. Either we should stop making exemptions for religions and minority cultures or allow us all the freedom, when it comes to our own businesses, clubs, societies, political parties etc, what rules we will have and who we will take in or exclude.
One thing is certain
Another usually fairly sensible (for a bishop) bishop is Carey who objected to the recent opposition to the welfare cap in the Lords.
There is a lot of nonsensical "sense" on this isse. People will point out that there are no jobs around at the moment anyway. True but then, AFAIK, nobody is planning to take welfare from genuine claimants who are really trying to get work. Lack of jobs in the current economic climate is not an argument to postpone necessary measures that, in the long term, will move us away from a welfare dependent society and restrict benefit to those who both need and deserve it. Some will point out that some genuine claimants will suffer. True again, but sometimes there is no absolutely infallible way of discriminating between the genuine, the exaggerated and the fake claim. We cannot protect those few unfortunates by making the tests of necessity so easy that society continues to pick up a huge bill with continuing damage to British incentive.
One question we really must be asking. WTF are these F* bishops doing in our upper house?
Takes me back
This item in the DT's week in pictures takes us back. What? Cry the non existent readers? Dinosaurs? You can't be quite that old, surely? Well, yes actually, when we were a little kid our favourite day out was going to see the lifesize dinosaurs in nearby Crystal Palace Park.
No T Rex unfortunately but the Iguanadon was great. The statues were first made in the Victorian age and it was our first introduction to the concept of scientific error. It had spikes on its nose instead of its thumbs and walked on 4 legs instead of two. We didn't really care. Even if it was a poofy herbivore it looked big and bitey, much better than the little plastic models we got free in boxes of PG Tips tea or the lumpy ones we made out of Plasticine *.
* Pity dinosuars weren't still around in the Pleistocene period or there would be a feeble joke there!
Films again
Talking of watching films again, we also couldn't miss watching the final of Open Range. Great to watch the villains get slaughtered. Go on, blow their brains out, stick the knife in their eyeball, push them off a cliff! Who doesn't cheer on the slaughter? Nobody would watch films like that if they didn't enjoy watching the baddies getting eliminated.
We can't help thinking that life made a lot more sense back then. None of this crappy concern about our enemies, whether individuals who threaten us personally or those who threaten our society or our nation. At some time in history, in the West anyway, we become indoctrinated with this strange view that there is something intrinsically valuable about all human life. What was a natural desire to help others out of charity and human empathy became a drive to preserve as many human accidents as possible whatever the cost to our own life experience. What should have been a willingness to help people improve themselves became an ongoing subsidy to those who prove themselves worthless over and over again. What should have become tolerance of other societies became a cowardly reluctance to defend our own from those who threaten it.
Where's my gun and my time machine? We may be some time.
Strange sports
We watched the Shawshank Redemption again the other day, one of the few films worth watching more than once. Towards the end of the film Dufresne escapes through the prison sewer pipe. Last summer a neighbour a few doors down built this decorative well in his garden. It doesn't look terribly decorative from here, wonder why he built it?
What is the connection? ask the non existent readers. It's just that, as far as I can make out from our plans, that well must be directly over the main sewer pipe. Hmmmmmm. Some people have funny preferences. Others, like we at bloggoth, also have disgusting imaginations.
The big difference
Somebody on CUK made the comment that using reason and religion in the same sentence was a schoolboy error, which earned the retort from a religious member "Fail. Go read Anselm." There's discussion of some of Anselm's gibberish here but to cut it short, the basic argument is this:
If we understand what almighty means and can admit the possibility that the almighty may exist in reality, then that is a contradiction because reality is greater than understanding and you can't have more almighty than almighty so, QED, the almighty exists.
What utter bollux. Reality is not involved here, understanding what god means and allowing of the possibility of god are both only ideas, you can't argue a truth from imaginings. They may both be wrong, you can't argue truth from two falsehoods. Even if reality was involved in the argument there would have to be a numerical relation between reality and understanding for the " greater than" argument to have any meaning, otherwise it's like comparing the size of a sheep to the intensity of a light bulb. If there was any merit in Anselm's argument, you could equally use it to argue the existence of some infinitely powerful impersonal physical laws rather than god.
That is not to say that Anselm was a fool but he was quite wrong to call such arguments proof. If a scientist makes a similar "logical" claim about the origins of the universe it is not called proof, it is called a hypothesis or a theory, which then has to be subject to collection of evidence, the observed expansion of the universe, the existence or otherwise of dark matter etc etc.
Only religion takes perceptions, similes or comparisons between totally different things and calls it proof.
Tax evasion idea
The Grinch, one of our bloggoth heros, is on trial for tax evasion.
If tax was spent as it should be, to defend our nation, to provide the regulations and laws we actually need for a stable and safe society, to help our own citizens who make a reasonable effort within the limits of their abilities, to support practical measures that help poorer nations to build their own economies and shift for themselves, then we would be all in favour of it.
But while so much of our tax is being wasted on overpaid public sector jobsworths, EU egomaniacs, pointless and/or unecessarily complicated regulations, policies based on unworkable idealistic dogma, welfare parasites, criminals' rights, useless and hostile immigrants, fake charities like the C of E, greedy companies, corrupt overseas governments and pointless expansion of ever dependent third world populations, who can blame anyone for trying to keep as much as they can? Three cheers for The Grinch, Wesley Snipes and all our other bloggoth heros.
We especially loved the way he had money paid to an account in the name of his dog and this is a strategy we shall be copying. Sales of xoggoth Tales on Kindle total a whole £2.31 less Amazon fees so far. There is no way you are getting any of this fortune bastard HMRC! We shall be popping into NatWest this afternoon and opening an account in the name of Mr Manky Blackbird skull.
Hey! I'm rich!!
Prophetic
Not been into it for a few decades but in teens/20s I used to read a lot of science fiction. There was one story of a future, and this was well before the internet, where communications technology had grown so intrusive that a man was spending his whole day doing nothing but communicating with his devices.
He didn't get the technology right, the Dick Tracy style wrist radio figured a lot, but in another way it was very prophetic. We jump through endless hoops to satisfy the bloody government and large companies. Self assessment, PAYE, corporation tax forms and accounts take up far more of our time than they did when you could just biro in the figures on paper forms and the burden grows noticeably every year. Companies take up a lot of our time too, downloading bank statements and adding +/- columns so they are as readable as the old paper ones, sending meter readings to energy companies, changing direct debits because the gym or insurance company has changed ownership yet again, fannying about testing the business website because of some other f* email notification of a technical change by the hosting company or the payment gateway company. Even online shopping can take longer than the old fashioned way. Sometimes you sit at the PC after breakfast, think you will just read your emails, pay a few bills and order some trivial thing you need, like a chain for the front door, and by the time you have finished, it's lunchtime.
The only thing that modern technology appears to have made easier is taxing a car.
Move over Shakespeare
xoggoth Tales now available on the Kindle.
Lessons from Indonesia
It is clear from comments on news stories, and it isn't just the right wing papers anymore, that people in the UK are getting fed up to the back teeth with the way that the rights of criminal, dangerous and useless people are being put above those of law-abiding tax-paying citizens. Fanatical Islamists allowed to stay in case they might be tortured in their own countries, Eastern Europeans squatting in peoples' houses and the police won't remove them even when there is evidence that they broke in, immigrants claiming huge sums in benefits, prisoners awarded compensation because they are not handled with kid gloves, citizens being prosecuted for defending their own property, criminals given soft sentences for all sort of reasons.
Sometimes crime proves fatal as in this case. Good. At least that's one worthless piece of shit off our backs. While we should perhaps have some sympathy with the inadequate or mentally person who commits an impulse crime, there is no reasonable excuse for crimes that require considerable initiative and planning to carry out. If premediation and significant preparation is needed to commit a crime then the criminal must usually be of sound mind and can, at any time, desist from carrying it through. In those circumstances, since the perpetrator has a free choice, we see no reason for the punishment to be proportionate.
The Indonesian authorities appear to agree. To prevent people riding free on the tops of trains they are hanging large concrete balls from bridges
Asked about worries that the balls could hurt or even kill those who defy the roof-riding ban,
he insisted that wasn't really his problem.
"They don't have to sit on top," he said. "And we've already told them, if the
train is full, go to the office. We will be happy to reimburse their tickets."
Sound thinking. Difficult to rig up fatal traps for most crimes without risking accidental injury to those who are not criminals but maybe we should give it serious thought where possible.
Topic: Lessons from Indonesia Comment here. Comments so far: 0
Spreading
More xoggoth cartoons discovered on the internet and these are only the ones we can find
because they provide links.
here
here (Cleanest version of two occurences)
here
Are we all dead yet?
The world was supposed to end last May 31st, then again on October 21st and it didn't then either, not unless the afterlife is boringly like the first one, complete with tax returns and rising petrol prices anyway. The second coming has come and gone many times throughout history yet people not only continue to believe it, they even continue to believe the same nutjobs and phonies who were wrong last time. That May 31st/Oct 21st pastor had previous form, the world ended in 1994 too.
Second comings, mediums who speak to the dead; however many phonies and loonies are exposed there are always those who carry on believing. Nothing illustrates this better than this case we chanced upon today while "researching" Feng Shui for a short story. This chap pretended to be a medium who could channel the 2000 year old spirit of Carlos. He first toured Australia and enthralled gullible audiences with palpably fake stories yet, even after the hoax was revealed on TV, many continued to believe in Carlos.
When people continue to believe in what self confessed fakes tell them, to believe in something when the evidence of falsehood is still readily available, what chance is there of weaning them off belief in the millenia-old nonsense of messiahs and prophets?
New opportunity
Some more crap dropped through our letterbox this morning, it rarely rates more than
a glance before going in the bin but one about a health supplement was interesting.
Apparently it is made of blue-green Algae. On the back is space for an address and:
YES, I would like (please tick one):
- to have more information sent to me on blue-green Algae
- to order a box of (blue green Algae)
- to have more info sent as well as place a first order
Blue-green Algae? Isn't that the stuff that always poisons a few kids and dogs at the height of the summer? According to this it is not always toxic but "Because we do not know what causes a blue-green to become toxic, it is impossible to predict when toxicity might occur". Hmmm. Hope the sellers of this health supplement know what they are doing. We think we will just stick to eating our compost heap, that's only occasionally toxic too (depending on where and how long ago we disposed of poisonous leaves, buried dead birds etc) and much cheaper.
Gives us an idea for a future business though if assisted suicide ever becomes legal in the UK. We can set up a company marketing toxic substances aimed at those who want to be knocked off but don't like spending money. Let's see, a bit of that compost heap, some weedkiller, some anti-freeze, into the blender. Looks splendid and should do the job.
xoggoth assisted suicide drink - buy now while it's cheap, demand will drive the cost up when it becomes legal. Only £10 ($424494428028508239055) a bottle.
Carry on!
Three good things to come out of the Stephen Lawrence trial:
1. Maybe now they will stop boring us all to death with this 18 year old case. Not holding our breath on that one.
2. At least forensics might take a bit more care with evidence in future and take scrupulous measures to avoid cross contamination. Precautions did not matter too much back in Hercule Poirot's day when evidence of murder would be a huge bloodstain but it does when the evidence is minute traces. DNA testing was commercially available in 1987, so perhaps the police should have been aware of the potential problems even back in 1993 when Lawrence was murdered. Yet again, our wonderful authorities had to discover things by trial and error. Will they now think ahead to when science can match even smaller traces? Probably not. These contamination arguments will all be heard again.
3 People will now be more aware of the menace of covert surveillance by government bodies. Here is the code of practice that allows our government to watch you and even plant cameras and microphones on your private property so they can observe and listen in on everything you do or say. We haven't read the whole thing but there appears to be such a general weaseliness in the wording that nothing is completely ruled out. There are two types of surveillance a) directed, which covers activity in public areas, property, media, forums etc and b) intrusive which relates to private ones. That document says this about the latter:
6.3 Under section 32(2), (3) and (3A) of the 2000 Act the Secretary of State or the senior authorising officer or designated deputy may only authorise intrusive surveillance if they believe: (a) that the authorisation is necessary in the circumstances of the particular case on the grounds that it is: ... In the interests of the economic well-being of the UK
HMRC like to talk about "the economic well being of the UK" and they are one of the organisations empowered to use these measures. HMRC has its own senior authorising officers, which simply means anyone above a certain grade, so don't imagine these decisions need to go to the Home Secretary. They say here that they cannot use intrusive surveillance but totally contradict that in this document page 3, item 3. And why would they refuse to reveal how many times they had used intrusive methods if they cannot use them?
If you think all this is mere bloggoth paranoia, then read what Baroness Noakes said here. Maybe everyone should buy one of these little gadgets, only £15.99 from Maplins. Never had a problem with Maplin stuff and it's CHEAP!. What else matters?
Cruelty to dictators
Been thinking about all this "Arab Spring" (ha ha) stuff, the questionable death of Mumra Gadaffy Duck in Libya, the ongoing trial of Hosni Mubarak and Sons in Egypt and the eventual probable fate of President Assad of Syria. There is, unfortunately, nothing new about this barbarism, not long ago we had the awful hanging of that nice Mr Hussein and look at what happened to poor old Mussolini and Hitler. Basically nice chaps, all of them, and it was clearly bad upbringing and marginalisation and neglect by uncaring societies that made them what they were.
This cruelty to dictators has to stop now. We demand that there should be no more prosecutions of these misguided leaders (we refuse to call them dictators or despots) for corruption, war crimes or "crimes against humanity". Instead, we demand that the UN should set up rehabilitation clinics where they can receive counselling, therapy to overcome their difficulties and instruction in proper government. After a few months perhaps they can be put in charge of minor projects, like running a small cattery or something like that. If they prove capable (having not slaughtered, starved or sexually abused too many cats) they could even be reinstated to their former positions.
We are sure that the non existent readers will agree with us that these so called dictators are not to blame, they are the victims of society and deserve our sympathy and support. We are all guilty! Please sign up to our petition here to request that the government should promote Flawed Leader Rehab Clinics to the UN council.
Bloody well get on with it
We agree with this, that the government needs to stop fecking about with windfarms and solar energy and all that impractical crap and start building nuclear plants NOW.
We should ignore all these daft EU carbon emissions targets too; while there are sound reasons to save energy as much as possible it makes no sense to not make use of the coal reserves we still have when China and other countries are opening coal-fired power plants far quicker than we can close them. Driving our manufacturing industry to less efficient plants in other countries and adding fuel consumption of the transport on top will not reduce emissions but increase them.
No Great Expectations
At the moment, with its lax immigration rules that allow in so many whose contribution is negligible or negative, the UK is marginally increasing its GDP while decreasing the things that really matter, our GDP per capita, our quality of life, our safety and our sense of belonging.
Centuries from now, in an even more vastly overcrowded world, when the demand for everything including the most basic essential items like water, food, fuel and housing materials outstrips supply, the nations whose people will be the happiest and most prosperous will be the ones with the smallest populations, the ones who can supply as much as possible of what they need from the limited resources available within their own shores. If we carry on as we are doing then, centuries from now, the UK will be one of the world's poorest nations.
There is always plenty of Dickens or Dickens inspired spoofs on TV over the Christmas period. The new Great Expectations had a huge audience. Perhaps the BBC should put on a lot more Dickens, it will start to prepare us for what is to come.
Hollywood sanity
Custer probably never said anything like it but here is a great quote from the film "Custer of the West":
I'll make it very simple for you. The fact that we seem to be pushing you clear off the earth is not my responsibility. The problem is precisely the same as when you Cheyenne decided to take another tribe's hunting ground. You didn't ask them about their rights. You didn't care if they had been there a thousand years. You just had more men and more horses. You destroyed them in battle. You took what you wanted, and right or wrong, for better or worse, that is the way things seem to get done. That's history. I'm talking about history. You are a militarily defeated people. You are paying the price for being backward. And whatever my personal feelings, and I don't say I have any, there's nothing I can do to change all this. Do you understand?
Indeed. So much of the bleating by the less successful nations and peoples of the world is pure hypocricy. Look at any period of history anywhere and there are conquests by warlike tribes, like the Lakota Sioux and the Chiricahua Apache in North America, the Masai and the Zulu in Africa, the Binjareb among the Australian aborigines. Wars, conquest of other tribes, occupation of their lands and massacres and enslavement of their people by these and others have been commonplace since before man first picked up a club. Had the Apaches or the Zulus or the Binjareb had well organised armies with modern transport, equipment and technology as the Europeans had in the last 500 years, the history of our world would be no less filled with conquest and occupation.
That is not to justify the European empires but simply to suggest that the blame-seeking failed minorities and the guilt-ridden white liberals who continually parrot the "anti racist" view that the white man is uniquely acquisitive, aggressive and contemptuous of other cultures should look at history as it really was.
Perhaps too, they should ponder the occasional wisdom in the Hollywood versions.
More little things annoying xoggoth
This week little things have been mostly doing:-
- Nibbling through the lead to our shed door light sensor
- Pulling all the feathers out of the old mugs in our shed (don't ask) while looking for seed
PS Although, come to think of it, these acts could also be those of some government agent sent to spy on us.
More sense from an unexpected quarter - 3
Darn it 2. First the Arsebishop of Canterbury, then Bob Crow, now we find we totally agree with Harriet Harman.
Some have suggested that Egyptian Tourism will be damaged if the Muslim Brotherhood gains power. If the Salafis have a role or major influence things will be far worse. Some have suggested that even beaches and swimming pools may be segregated. This will not be a popular idea with Westerners, not simply because they will want to be with their girlfriends/boyfriends but because women will be less safe if separated from their men given that Egyptian men are a notoriously awful bunch of molesters. We even saw it happening in full view of the world's press during the so called Arab Spring. (Ha! ha!)
As Harriet Harman suggests and as that first article says, it is not just foreign tourists or those defending women's rights who get abused but ordinary Egyptian women and not just those who dress immodestly but veiled women too. Wherever you get unnatural restrictions on male sexuality, whether it is due to religion as among Catholic priests or Muslims, or lack of opportunity, as in prisons, boarding schools or among the charmless who can't get girlfriends, you get unnatural practices or aggressive and inconsiderate attitudes to women.
It is constantly stated that Western society, with its emphasis on sex, is demeaning and degrading to women but the reality is that our honest admission that mating is an important life factor for both sexes is much nearer to the natural way of things than the attitudes in conservative countries and our belief that women should make their own choices is much nearer to being true respect for them than treating them as chattels to do a man's bidding.
Their country, their choice. But if their economy does suffer, if the lot of women and Christians does get worse, let us not spend our money on foreign aid to help the bastards out. Given the amount we give to Pakistan, a country that almost makes Egypt look a decent place, we are not holding our breath.
PS Watch out for the propoganda on Egypt. Take a look at this description of Pakistan. Is this really the same country as the one described here by our foreign office?
Repeat
Had a dream this morning. Can't for the life of us think what it was now, we only recall that when we woke up we were quite sure we had had exactly the same dream before. Oh no! This could turn into BBC TV with endless repeats. How long before our brain demands an annual licence?
More religious bollox
Pope Grandpa Munster has been spouting the usual religious crap about moral relativism.
Moral relativism, the idea that acts should be judged on their effects, rather than be categorised according to theoretical notions or some nonsensical scripture, is so sensible that the vast majority of Christians practice it themselves. How many Christians actually refuse to fight for their country in a war? How many do not justify it as being in the greater good? If Hitler or any other nasty dictator could have been assassinated AND there was a good chance that far fewer people would have died or suffered as a result then who, Christians included, would not have supported it?
That is not to say that the last five of the Ten Commandments are not a sound basis for any society but, like any sensible laws, they need a few subclauses and opt outs. Thou shalt not commit adultery? Depends. Usually very hurtful within a loving marriage but if it has already fallen apart and the spouse no longer gives a damn, what does it matter?
Our democracy really sucks
According to this:
A weighted average of this month's polls put the Conservatives on 39 per cent (up four points), Labour on 38 per cent (down one point) and the Liberal Democrats on 12 per cent (unchanged). If the figures were replicated in a general election, Labour would be the largest party in a hung Parliament.
So a Labour party with fewer votes is still going to get more seats; that is not democracy. What a shame that twat Clegg and his idiot Lib Dems botched the referendum by proposing a fudge of a system that had just as many flaws. Had we all been voting for one that really delivered seats in proportion to votes he may well have won and we would now have at least one thing to be grateful to his crappy party for.
Tickled
It seems animals love being tickled. Who can blame them?
What a shame we humans only have two main forms of physical manipulation we can pay for - proper massage, which is expensive and often bleedin' painful, and "massage" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) which is even more expensive and a bit risky.
We at bloggoth would love to have cheap tickling and scratching parlours. Pay a modest fee and get tickled and scratched for 20 mins by some nice young lady, no "extras" involved. Fantastic!
Use a dictionary?
Jeremy Clarkson's comment a while ago about a typical Mexican being "a lazy, feckless, flatulent oaf with a moustache" could accurately be described as racist stereotyping. *Note
However, that is the wrong term to apply to his latest comment that "everyone who goes to India gets the trots". Everyone is obviously not correct but most would be. According to this up to 60% of travellers from developed countries get acute diarrhea in developing countries and India is listed as one of the 5 highest risk nations. This is a not a racist joke about a people but a largely accurate one about the poverty stricken and insanitary state of much of that country. Why must a few people get so exercised about nothing?
Note: Naturally, we at bloggoth thoroughly disapprove of such
stereotyping, especially when it is plainly unjustified. Mexicans are clearly not lazy!
Smuggling hordes of people into somebody elses's country, violent street crime, kidnapping,
running drugs and shooting people requires a good deal of effort and resourcefulness.
The reality is that, if anything, Clarkson's old fashioned stereotype of a lazy, laid back
Mexican is flattery. Mexico is a
violent, corrupt and crime ridden shithole and it's getting worse. This is
no reflection on its people obviously, most crime is carried out by Llamas.
Although, from that official US travel advice, Mexico has a long way to go before
it becomes anything like such a
violent, corrupt and crime ridden shithole as Pakistan.
What about
We at bloggoth and the missus bloggoth always record and watch the André Rieu concerts. Watched one tonight in Mexico and one of the singers did this Michael Jackson song. Great, but not as good as the original.
Is there any nation sillier than France?
We can understand that Germany and a few other countries who actually perpetrated the Holocaust will be sensitive about it, especially when they still have far right groups who make the BNP look moderate, but does such denial of free expression, in the absence of any wider anti-semitic agenda, really have any point elsewhere?
France already has a law allowing imprisonment for up to a year of anyone who disputes the existence of any "crime against humanity" or seek to excuse or vindicate the perpetrators. This is purely idiotic. People may reasonably have doubts about whether events were actually as presented and, given the falsehoods that have been perpetrated throughout history, they may not always be wrong. We also know that real life events do not tend to fit quite so snugly into these simplistic scenarios about evil people attacking the innocent. Sometimes those "evil" people feel, not always without justification, that they and their families were under threat.
Now France has passed a law outlawing any denial of the Armenian Genocide. We don't have any particular doubts about the reality of a genocide which fits the real history of Islam as opposed to the airbrushed nonsense that is always being peddled and we don't object to offending an increasingly Islamic Turkey as any friction that makes their accession to the EU less likely has to be good thing but what really is the point of a law restricting free speech about an event that happened nearly a century ago in a country that was not involved?
It gets dafter than that. In France it is illegal to collect ethnic statistics and that is purely insane. As we have said before, while there is a case for not shouting the problems caused by some minorites due to the damage this causes to the better ones among them, the government should certainly be collecting and using data to make proper policy decisions. If migrants from some countries are disproportionately crap and, let's face it, some are, we need to tighten up on immigration from them and stop repeating the same mistakes.
Still, at least this move by France seems not to fit the normally liberal left agenda on these things, where it is only the actions of the white right that are the focus. Maybe, if we are going to get these silly laws, we should call 9/11 a crime against humanity and prosecute all these conspiracy theorists. At least it might stop them boring us all to death.
Speaking Il of the dead
Now that the Great Leader, Roy Orbison of North Korea is dead one wonders why it should actually make any difference. He never did anything positive for his people in life so he could do just the same now he is dead. Maybe he should stay in power, it might be a much better option for the North Koreans than another fat bloated pampered son.
Why not make all those running for public office here assign rights over their dead bodies to the general public? What happened to them would be determined by polls. Those who were only moderately crap, like Wilson or Home, or really crap but basically decent, like Callaghan or Major, would get dignified funerals. The utterly awful malignant bastards, like Heath, Blair or Brown, would not get buried at all but get nailed to walls and left to rot so people could see how death has improved them. It might give future leaders some idea what the British public expects.
Story
The latest xoggoth Tale: Out of it
Moth
We at bloggoth normally rescue little creatures but it's far too cold outside and this one seems quite happy to overwinter in the bathroom. This wierd little plane-shaped creature is a Plume Moth.
PS Odd how nearly all similar photos on the net appear to be shot indoors, mainly on light coloured or tile surfaces that you might see in bathrooms. Clearly this is rather a pervy little moth that likes to watch people in the bath or shower or ...
More sense from an unexpected quarter - 2
Darn it. First lefty twat Bob Crow and now we find we agree with comments the Arsebishop of Canterbury on the Arab "Spring".
It seems probable that the nearest there will be to democracy in the Middle East in the foreseeable future is that strange Muslim sort under which, even assuming there are elections, only Muslims can participate in government above the lowest levels and only Imams in the hierarchy of the main branches of the faith have any real say over the direction of society. Christians and others, as in nearly every Muslim country throughout the world, will be marginalised or even persecuted minorities and their decline will go on.
Democracy in which all sane, adult, law abiding citizens do not have an equal say is not democracy at all.
Having one's voice heard
One of the daftest things one hears about distancing oneself from some useless or failing international organisation like the EU is the idea that we "lose influence on the world stage".
How is being just one member of a large committee that imposes its collective decisions on us having global influence as a nation? How is having British views or interests diluted or negated before we even get on to that "world stage" raising our profile on it? We are the eighth largest economy and the fifth largest military power. Not exactly what we were in Gladstone's day, it's true, but not insignificant either. Having to have our decisions approved by Luxembourg or Latvia helps how exactly?
Bastard moon
A couple of years back we had the best meteor shower for a hundred years and it was a cloudy week in xoggoth land. Last night we had a partial lunar eclipse and naturally the f* moon was still behind the trees when it happened. We might have caught the tail end but naturally as soon as it cleared them a lot of cloud had appeared. F* moon!
Never mind, we managed to catch the eclipse the previous night. What? Two eclipses in two nights? Is that even possible? cry the non existent readers! Of course it is. We have the photographic proof right here.
1,2,3. It takes a few tries to get the order right.
We at bloggoth are not half so judgemental on Cameron as some righties as there are some realities that have to be lived with in a coalition. The real culprits in the failures to confront the f* EU are all you f* idiots who voted Lib Dem or, far more insanely considering their awful record, shitty Labour.
Still, we were pleasantly surprised at his refusal to sign up for yet another treaty, which would supposedly be used only to tackle the EU crisis and, as with every other treaty/agreement/charter/act/whatever would have been used by the Euro fanatics to impose their grandiose schemes on all of us before we are ready or the conditions are suitable, by the more powerful nations to serve their own interests or, as is increasingly apparent from the bile being spouted by Sarkozy and others, out of shear spite because we do not give wholehearted approval to their provenly idiotic agenda.
Not that the Eurozone crisis will be solved by the new accord as it only feigns to address one nonsense. Finally, these idiots appear to have grasped that a common currency without common regulations on tax, financial dealings, commerce and industry, extending to those things that affect them, such as welfare or working practices, cannot work.
There is one more nonsense left to grasp. How many years will it take them to realise that common laws and regulations imposed on disparate economies and societies won't work either?
Update: One of the soundest articles on the proposed EU treaty is here. Wasteful public expenditures do need to be cut but this crisis is not solely about feckless governments and lazy Greeks as has been portrayed but about a fundamental imbalance in economies created by the lunacy of a single currency from which Germany has profited more than any. What to do now with the debt ridden countries? Why not impose a rigid conformity on disparate nations that the most successful economy in the world, the US, has never imposed on its own states? Why not have uniform tax rates that prevent them attracting any new investment? Yeh, that makes sense. Not. She seems to have some sort of reputation as a sound politician but Merkel is actually one of the stupidest and most disastrous national leaders of modern times. She almost makes Gordon Brown look sensible.
e petition to legalise cannibalism
Times are hard and money is short so why are we wasting good meat and taking up valuable land for burials or contributing to global warming with cremations?
Everyone agrees that it is a noble thing to allow posthumous use of one's organs to save or enhance the lives of those needing transplants, so how is a final contribution of a freezer full of Sunday lunches for one's family any different? We are sure Deliah Smith can come up with some great recipes to ensure that even fat or boney old people will make a tasty meal. Some may feel that eating one's parents, offspring or siblings seems a bit incestuous but they can always set up local cooperatives and do a swap.
We have been to the government's website and set up an e-petition here. If 100,000 of the non existent readers sign it we can get it debated in parliament. To provide extra incentive, 10 signaturies will be chosen at random and left a slice of xoggoth to eat in our will if the law is passed.
PS And why are there no rude bits donations for proper sex change transplants?
Fat bald twat alert
Some idiot is claiming a trademark infringement by our small company due to use of our logo which bears only the faintest resemblance to his and which was in use nearly 2 years before his. We are in completely different areas of business and neither is likely to impact the other in any way.
We hate petty minded little arseholes like this. He has clearly not taken any legal advice and is ignorant of the clauses of the Trade Marks Act 1994 which, even if the mark was almost identical, require the companies to be in the same area of business such that a confusion exists between the two.
Not only has he no case under section 10 but lawyers advise strongly that one should never claim trademark infringement without proper legal advice as the mere threat of legal action can lay a claimant, either the company or the individual making the claim, open to suite under section 21 dealing with unjustified infringement claims.
We feel vindictive, some people need to be taught a lesson.
Moving on
Funny how tastes change. Some artists we used to like, like Marianne Faithful (saw her live once before her nose grew and she turned into Edith Piaf) or The Rolling Stones, (with a few exceptions, like I Wanna Be Your Man) have very little appeal these days. Same with serious/opera, used to love Kiri Te Kanawa but now she seems rather bland. On the other hand, a singer I never used to rate, I now rather like. Andrea Bocelli.
PS Can't be bothered with a bloggoth lyricy thing but according to Bing this is the translation. Don't ask us what piango means.
This my song Hymn of love You sing now With my sorrow So strong, so great It pierces the heart. But clear is in the morning between the smell of wine I dreamed and now I see you again Ah, nostalgia Fresco of the Hill I pìango that madness He was to leave later on. This melody Hymn of love You singing and feel All my sorrow So strong, so great It pierces the heart. But clear is in the morning among the fields a large windmill There was my destiny bitter without you ... bitter without you. And this core canta A sweet melodrama Is the anthem of love Who will sing for you Is a melodrama that That song without you.
Tyres, coins and illegal immigrants in the shed
Some bastard has been letting our van tyre down again recently. It doesn't happen if we put the CCTV in the bedroom window where it is pretty obvious but we don't want it there permanently as it's very ugly and takes up space on the dressing table. We would rather catch the ****.
We were digging among the junk in the shed to make a stand for our tiny radio camera and found some Filipino coins. Where the hell did they come from? We have never been to the Phillipines and don't know anyone who has. About 10 years ago our town hospital recruited a few Filipino nurses and, as always happens when you open the door to any poorish country, more and more have been coming to the town and you now see them everywhere. Last year a nail bar was raided and illegals were detained. Oh no! The xoggoth shed must be on the trafficers' radar, we must inform the authorities! Although if they open a brothel there, we might forget to report it.
Back to the tyre. Before today, it has only ever gone down on a Sunday or Bank holiday but today it was let down on a Monday and could have caused an accident as we drove off without noticing. MR PS had a day off. Coincidence? We thought he wasn't that childish but could we be overestimating the cretin?
PS Re PS. Nope, not guilty (pity) discovered this strange erratic fault was actually caused by the wheel trim being on incorrectly and pressing on valve. Not sure how it was erratic but put it on properly and no probs since.
Free reading of our future
Saw an ad from a psychic and astrologer offering to tell my future for free. Free??? Somebody only has to say the words cheap or free and we at bloggoth are hooked. Of course we used the fictional name/email account *Note 1 that we use for bollux like that to avoid spam to our real account. Our phoney surname looks like it should be a common British one but it actually doesn't exist and Google brings up no other occurences. So what is the probable future of a fictional character?
This was not an automated thing dear sceptical non existent reader, so it took at least a day to do a complete job of analysing our "name", date of birth, zodiac influence and the current planetary positions in the sky but we are pleased to say that the nice lady was "overwhelmed by intense revelations" when she looked at my fictitious self's case. He has enormous potential and is only held back by some invisible hand. It seems he is also a very rare individual, one who is on the cusp of a Transit Period that begins in a couple of weeks and could find himself immensely richer and happier if he makes the right decisions during that brief period and knows how to protect himself from harmful unlucky vibrations by a person who is envious of him. Of course his chances are much better with some guidance and he is fortunate that the nice lady is so interested in his case that she has offered her help at a much reduced price. Time is running out, so he had better act fast!!!
Pity we didn't get a rude message back saying Norah has looked at your details and found that you are an invented phony, we might have been more convinced.
Update: Wow! It seems that we at bloggoth, or rather our fictional persona, we shall call him NOT Mr X, is really special! The nice lady has emailed to say that, right out of the blue, she was struck by an unsolicited vision of him standing at the middle of a grand intersection, and only one path had an aura of peace, happiness and passion for life. This vision was so unprecedented that she has created a special page on the website just for him! What a fool NOT Mr X would be not to pay for the lifechanging advice!
Update PS: Ah! We missed a previous email about a great opportunity that would present itself around mid afternoon yesterday. Let's see, don't think receiving a letter theatening legal action in respect of a supposed trademark infringement counted as a great opportunity, so must have been the purchase of a 2nd hand bike. That must be it! How uncannily accurate these predictions are!
Note 1: The account is only set up in ultrafunk Popcorn which downloads headers only, so no attachments with potential viruses and a single click deletes everything on the server. We at bloggoth thoroughly recommend it.
Nearly forgot
Reading biography of Stephen King. Very poor childhood in some ways, abandoned by his father early on and the family was continually moving from one place to another while his mother earned a living in a series of menial jobs. In later life he had huge problems with alcohol and cocaine addiction but nevertheless was a decent man, did a lot of philanthropic work, had a stable marriage, cared for his kids and kicked his addiction cold turkey when his wife gave him an ultimatum. Some of his non horror stuff, like The Shawshank Redemption, puts him among the greatest modern writers in our view.
He nicked all his ideas from we at bloggoth of course. Still, we can't single him out for that, everybody does it. That reminds us, wrote a new short story last week, Taking a short cut. Watch out for a new 56,0000 page Stephen King novel on the same theme next year.
Topic: Nearly forgot Comment here. Comments so far: 0
Dashboard
We at bloggoth like our new(ish) van, although we have never been arsed to figure out what all those mysterious dashboard lights are. Once a dashboard used to have just oil and ignition lights with proper bulbs inside but now there is a great black panel with all sorts of glowing LED shapes on them.
We are very envious, we want to be covered in mysterious orange indicators too. It is most unfair that machines evolve so rapidly while we humans have to wait millions of years until Darwin gets round to it. Given that there are heart rate and blood pressure monitors, why cannot science equip us all with little dashboards with lots of indicators and warnings? As a start, we could have one like this with temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol level, hydration level, brain activity, Body Mass Index, time to sleep, biological age, time to eat, time to pee and time to poo.
Dashboard PS
Of course, while realtime embedded health monitors may be a good thing there could be times you won't want to know.
Turkey's democratic dusk
There is an interesting article in New Europe about "Turkey's democratic dusk". The media is being controlled and military officers and others who have defended the secular Kemelist tradition have been arrested on trumped up charges.
Increasingly the state is controlled by Gulenists, followers of the "moderate" Islamist Ferthullah Gulen, who are finding their way into important positions of power in the government, the police, the judiciary, the military and the security services. Even more worryingly, children are being targetted in schools and indoctrinated in the need for Islamic law and this is not just happening in Turkey but in the more secular Muslim countries and in non Muslim countries - this is a worldwide movement which presents itself as moderate but seeks to establish Sharia.
Check Gulen's comments on human rights here. This is a man who sees rights as being defined by the Qur'an, who dismisses consideration of all other views on how they should be defined by saying that it is not possible to talk about them with those who have no faith in God, stating that they do not show respect for truth and even implying that they are following the example of Satan. Are his views and the contempt he displays for those of non Muslims really compatible with a rational, secular democracy that treats all citizens equally? Is he even being honest in his so-called tolerance? According to that 2nd link, in 1999 Turkish television aired footage of Gülen delivering sermons to a crowd of followers in which he revealed his aspirations for a Turkey ruled by Sharia:
You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers … until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria … like in the yearly disasters and tragedies in Egypt. The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it … You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey … Until that time, any step taken would be too early—like breaking an egg without waiting the full forty days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside. The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all—in confidence … trusting your loyalty and secrecy. I know that when you leave here—[just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here.
Both the Dutch authorities and the FBI are looking into the activities of this group, including connections to radical or terrorist organisations. There are clear problems for Western leaders in breaking links with what was once a major political and military ally but at least the way Turkey is moving away from democracy towards an increasingly authoritarian Islamic state does not seem to have entirely escaped their notice. Just maybe they will have reservations about letting it into the EU.
On the other hand, our rulers are total fucking idiots who usually fail to grasp obvious facts, for example, that a common currency between very different economies could not work, that the war in Afganistan was not winnable or that the Arab "Spring" would be nothing of the sort, so we do not hold out that much hope.
Dream
Dreams often reflects the experiences of the day or perhaps a news story or TV program. After seeing a bit of Childen in Need the other night we had a dream about taking children up in a flying transparent cylinder and dropping them at random in peoples' gardens. When we woke up we were convinced it was a great solution to the problem of children in care who are difficult to place with foster parents.
Our much more logical waking self feels it needs a minor modification in that the worst kids, the ones who are clearly going to be the next generation of criminals, are dropped into volcanoes instead. Otherwise, it's a great idea.
Whoops, racist assumption right again
Read the headline here about cat coursing, used to train dogs for dog fighting, and thought "the Midlands or Lancashire will probably feature prominently". Oh dear, right again. That news is in The Daily Mail so must be wrong according to the lefty mantra. What does the liberal lefty BBC say about dog fighting in the Midlands? Oh dear:
Ian Briggs, chief inspector of the RSPCA's Special Operations Unit said dog-fighting is up
400% in the past three years in the UK.
"Out of all the work we do 98% is Asian".
...
Dog fighting is part of life in rural Punjab and Kashmir and there are fears that its
acceptability could be increasing among a new generation of young Asians in the UK aware
of fathers, uncles and cousins attending dog fights in Pakistan.
This long banned "sport" is not just one of Pakistanis as the extent of it in Scotland and some other areas indicates. However, there is no doubt that this is an issue, along with others that most would regard as more important like female equality or freedom of religion, where immigration has contributed significantly to a rise in unnacceptable attitudes and practices that we spent centuries trying to eliminate.
When we take in people from backward nations without adequate checks, let them refuse to integrate fully and allow them to retain strong cultural links with their countries of origin it is hardly surprising that we import backward views. Not PC to say it of course but this is an observable truth and acceptance of it, "racist" or not, leads to suprisingly accurate assumptions.
Well done
We at bloggoth have previously provided many great tips towards getting the important things of life as cheaply as possible, such as here, here, here or here. What is more important for a lady (ok, us) than a huge bottom? According to this news item a fake doctor used cement, super glue, mineral oil and tyre sealant to give himself/herself/itself and another person gigantic arses. Naturally we at bloggoth heartily approve of him/her/whatever. We don't really care about someone's gender when he/she/it has an anormous arse as we would never bother to look round the front anyway.
Let's see, got an old bag of cement and the van's engine oil needs changing. Tyre sealant and superglue are a bit expensive but got a bicycle pump and some sellotape, sorted! Oh missus xoggoth? Got a present for you! On the other hand, a bum made of cement, especially given that we might go overboard a bit, may have some downsides.
Cows
Another great sunny footpath jogging day. A problem round here is that most of the farms are cattle farms, so you are often gingerly picking your way through fields full of bulls or skittish bullocks, ducking under electric fences or wading ankle deep in manure.
That cow pooy footpath today was a nightmare. Just wait until we at bloggoth get our parish path inspector's certificate next week, then he's in for it! Ooh! Just imagine the JOY of issuing a Schedule D (x1) Notice in accordance with sub section J (2) of the Public Rights of Way Act (1998) Amendment 4 requiring it to be cleaned up.
Trouble is, we've met the couple from that farm and they are very pleasant. Funny how you volunteer for things thinking it might be fun and interesting and immediately find yourself in a minor dilemma. To report the poo or not to report the poo? Nah! We at bloggoth have already issued an Exemption under Section J Clause 4(iii) of the bloggoth Ignoring Rules When We Feel Like It act.
This week's article that we at bloggoth would have written had we been arsed to do so
Nick Robinson on how government wastes our moneySocial progress
We at bloggoth had a dream with a black guy in it last night and naturally we are very pleased. Do others have multi ethnic dreams that properly reflect our exciting rich culture? We certainly hope so.
It is surely high time that the government required everyone (ie the white British) to don brain monitoring equipment at night so they can ensure that all dreams are properly inclusive. Anyone who has dreams that fail to reflect the nature of our splendidly vibrant society in an entirely positive way would have to report for correction.
Yeh
No idea what this sort of heavy beat music(?) is called but love it. Great words too. Stretch me, bite me, kiss my ass...
PS It's Industrial Splatter Porno Pop apparently.
Like father, unlike son
Hate the principle of royalty but have always quite liked the Duke of Edinburgh. Another bit of sense from him here, Wind farms are useless. Quite. On the other hand his eldest son, The Prince Of Daftness is an irrational fucking idiot.
Topic: Like father Comment here. Comments so far: 0
Hugging - yuck!
People have been queueing to be hugged by this lady. Being hugged is supposed to release a hormone, Oxytocin that has a calming effect on the brain and increases empathy. Some people seem to hug everyone they meet. We at bloggoth cannot stand being hugged. Being hugged by anyone except the missus bloggoth and, er, well, no, only missus bloggoth obviously, results in release of huge quantities of carbolic acid and creosote, we could use our blood to treat a fence after being hugged. Why would any man want to be hugged by anyone except a lady when there was a possible bonk going?
Maybe we are lacking in some essential social programming here to our own detriment. If only there was something to encourage bonding with our fellow man that wasn't quite so personal. Perhaps other social animals have some better ideas. What would monkeys do?
Ah yes. Picking off and eating each other's fleas. That's more like it, not just about bonding but practical too and you don't have the embarrassment of having to look at the other person. If I could just lie on my stomach while somebody fumbled around with my bottom I think I could quite enjoy social bonding. Maybe it's a variation that nice Hindu lady should consider.
The unrecognised genius of our "unemployable" yoof
In the wake of the announcement of huge levels of youth unemployment we have had more reports in the usual papers that British youth, unlike our wonderful immigrants, lack the right work ethic. They would rather stay at home on welfare and play computer games.
On the other hand, with a bit of imagination, this attitude could be used to our advantage. Perhaps the UK can lead the way into a new golden age of industry and commerce. Why not use the power of computing to create a virtual reality that controls a, erm, real reality and harness the decision making skills of gamers to enact real life decisions in the workplace or use their fast reactions to build things quickly? Maybe choice of powers, skills and weapons of your games characters could be linked to real data, making sound choices over whether to grant a morgtage or decide treatment based on a patient's symptoms. Some games involve creation of a virtual worlds, so maybe the likes of Wimpey Homes could feed in real parameters and use the results as the outline plans for new housing estates.
In any case, our British yoof are going to come in really handy when the earth is invaded by dragons, aliens, demons from hell or monsters from another dimension. Who else will know how to tackle the threat? Not those hard working immigrants, that's for sure, nobody will be able to fight off the evil time lord Kanzoor using their shelf stacking skills. Who will have the last laugh then eh?
Never ending nightmare
What the hell do the locked in think about? The TV had an interview with someone who had been in that condition for many months but had made a full recovery. He reported that he had felt frustrated. Frustrated? I can’t imagine I would apply such a bland description because it would be the most terrifying experience it could be possible to have. It would be a nightmare, but one from which it would be impossible to wake.
I know this because every real nightmare I have ever had has been about just that, being trapped, unable to move, unable to escape from some small place, being totally helpless. So profound has been the effect of this occasional occurrence that when I have awoken the effects have stayed with me. In near panic I have had to get up and turn all the lights on, watch anything on TV or pace back and forward just to get back the feeling of reality and physical interaction with the world. It has sometimes been an hour before I have been able to go back to bed, turn out the light and lie still without the loss of those sensory stimuli starting the anxiety up again.
If you were locked in, how could you apply these remedies? How would your mind alone ever be able to stop the panic or avoid being overwhelmed by that overpowering feeling of unreality?
Going backwards
We were going to rant about the BBC cutting programs while still wasting licence payers' money on providing a news service to the world in umpteen languages but got totally diverted by some interesting technical points.
We all know Arabic is read from right to left but you have to select a block of webpage text backwards too. On this BBC Arabic page you have to start top right then move down/left rather than top left and down/right. That is also true if you paste it into notepad. It seems there are various fairly simple additions to HTML tags to implement right oriented pages (when the scroll bar appears at the left) and to reverse text on websites, although when we tried the latter on a paragraph here it didn't work.
Me? Do horrible Muslimy Arabic? Said the bloggoth page, not on your nelly! Quite right, bloggoth page, I don't know what I was thinking. This blog hasn't been the same since we lost the wise council of Mr Manky Sheep Skull. We suspect he may have been kidnapped by Al Qaeda.
PS We thought Google translate was much better than Yahoo babelfish but it's useless at Arabic. If using IE9, right click and use Translate with Bing, it's brill,the page appears in almost perfect English. Jeez! It's ten times as dull as the stuff the BBC feed us. Lots of old news about cartoons of the prophet. We recall reading somewhere that Arabs have no normal sense of now, maybe that's why some think their selective tales of Muslim tolerance in 13th century spain have any relevance to today.
Ramblings
The non existent reader will not have noticed but we at bloggoth like little creatures far more than crappy human beings. We were most saddened to find this very recently deceased pheasant today, cause of death unknown as it had no visible injuries, not even a feather out of place. The missus xoggoth collects feathers for her American Indian days but we could not bring ourselves to desecrate the little corpse. The first fox or badger to find it tonight will not be so respectful unfortunately.
And we accidentally destroyed a mouse's nest while tidying up a big pile of tree trimmings at the weekend. Sob! We are now planning to set up lots of little mouse homes made of old boxes under the shed by way of compensation. Was it planning a late crop of little meeces? According to this there is a second spring going on. While running in teashirt today we took several photos of freshly blooming wildflowers. Some branches I chucked on the bonfire pile three weeks ago have tiny new shoots on them. That's wierd! A bit like Anne Boleyn's head opening its eyes and asking what's for breakfast.
Elkie Brooks - Don't Cry Out Loud
This week's article that we at bloggoth would have written had we been arsed to do so
here